THEN: Looking north on First Hill’s 9th Avenue on a snowbound day in early February 1916. (Courtesy, Nancy Johnson)NOW: Both our “now” and “then” include the south and west walls of German House the two-story brick landmark left-of- center. Constructed in 1886 by Seattle editor-historian Thomas Prosch as Prosch Hall, it serve as the Seattle Assay Office during the Yukon Gold Rush.

This winter week we share another snap from The Big Snow of February 1916. Except for Puget Sound’s prolonged pioneer blizzard in 1880, the 1916 snow bounding was the deepest in our city’s history. For any media, including the thousands of box Kodak’s in the hands of Seattle citizens, the four-day blizzard of 1916 was a sensational although slippery subject. Like motorcars at the curb, cameras were by then nearly commonplace on Seattle mantles. The absence of cars here on First Hill’s Ninth Avenue is best understood as related to the drifts and the absence of any snowplowing in these blocks by the understandably unprepared municipal streets department. A team of horses pulling a covered wagon can be found at the scene’s center heading west on Columbia Street from its intersection with Ninth Avenue. For snow like this teams were favored.

For this snap an unaccredited photographer looks north on 9th Avenue with her or his back to James Street. This First Hill prospect may have been reached from Pioneer Square aboard a James Street Cable car – assuming that the Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power Co. cable cars were then still plowing through the drifts. Or the photographer might have lived nearby. First Hill was Seattle’s first neighborhood of accumulated wealth, which by 1907 would have often included cameras in the libraries.

Since 1907 the grandest interruption of Seattle’s skyline has been the Roman Catholic St. James Cathedral at Marion Street and 9th Avenue. Before February 3, 1916, St. James had three landmark elevations including the two Renaissance Towers and the cathedral’s centered dome. On February 2nd, it lost the dome. The architects who examined the crashed dome lying on the chancel floor concluded that the sanctuary’s roof was five times stronger than needed to hold even the heavy wet snow left by the blizzard. The engineering culprit was a weakness in one of the dome’ steel supports.

St. James before February, 1916, dome intact.

For comparison we have also included a print of the Cathedral dome before its collapse and crash. The damaged roof showing with the featured photo can be compared with the intact one, which although splendid in its soaring outline was, we learn from Maria Laughlin, the current director of stewardship and development for the cathedral, a handicap to the cathedral’s acoustics. What the crash took from the church’s eye it gave back – miraculously? – to its ear. After the crash of its sound-swallowing dome, St. James has become a revealing space for concerts and much kinder to its organ and choir.

THEN: Most of the Gatzert home and its many towering gables are hidden here behind the corner’s bower of maples, which we learn from Seattle Times writer Peg Strachan were popular for romantic trysts. The twelve-story Alaska Building, Seattle’s first iron strengthened skyscrsaper (1904) rises above it.NOW: The Lyon Hotel replaced Gatzert’s corner in 1911.

During the last year of World War Two, Margaret Pitcairn Strachan, a Seattle Times contributor, made a wise choice for a weekly serial subject. She named it “Seattle’s Pioneer Mansions and some of the events they saw.” It was an illustrated weekly feature with copy inches about five times longer than this one. The author interviewed many of the surviving pioneers – most often their children – and the families often held cherishes photographs, which they shared with Strachan.

One of my earliest mentors; Lawton Gowey, the Seattle organist, historian, and collector of Seattle historical ephemera, first introduced me to Strachan’s series letting me take his perfectly preserved collection home to my copy stand. Thru my now 37 years of writing this feature for PacificNW Magazine, I have used many of the 52 features Strachan researched, wrote, and illustrated for The Times. The series began on September 3, 1944. The Times’ front-page headline that Sunday was encouraging. It reads “Germans In Disorderly Retreat as 2 Yank Forces Enter Belgium.”

Strachan’s last feature on mansions appeared on August 26, 1945. By her study of the then surviving array of Seattle’s historic homes – and their stories – Margaret Pitcairn Strachan (“Peg”) has made a profound and lasting contribution to our understanding of Seattle History. Our readers would be correct to conclude that both Jean and I strongly urge them to seek-out the Strachan originals (all 52 of them) with the help of the Seattle Public Library’s copy of The Seattle Times Archives. (If you have a library card, a Seattle Public Librarian can lead you in its use both on line and over the phone. If you have no card now is a good time to get one.)

The small mansion nestled here in a copse of its own maples was built in the early 1870s at the northwest corner of James Street and Third Avenue by one of Seattle’s truly powerful pioneer couples: Bailey and Barbetta Gatzert. The couple’s plan to follow the move of Seattle’s more affluent citizens up First Hill to newer and larger mansions was abandoned. By the year this photograph was taken shortly before the Third Avenue regrade in 1906 Bailey had died in1893. Babetta then built a retreat on the east shore of Lake Washington and called it Lucerne after the Swiss lake that she and Bailey admired (In this Alpine line they also raised Seattle’s first Saint Bernard). At the turn of the century the Gatzert home was converted into shops. A row of them running north on Third Avenue from the corner with James Street is easily seen here. (The print has a metropolitan French name “Bloc de Lyon,” lower-left corner, because the major investors in the Gatzert block were French citizens.)

The accomplishments, businesses and charities, of the Gatzerts were so extensive that we will list a share of them here over the next day or so.

WEB EXTRAS

Greetings, travelers! As no doubt most of you are aware, the Alaskan Way Viaduct closed to traffic forever this past Friday at 10PM. We at DorpatSherrardLomont were determined to mark the occasion. While the city remains divided – and perhaps always will be – over the fate of the viaduct and its replacement by the tunnel, there is no disputing the spectacular views it has provided over the past 65 years.

On its final day of operation, we hoisted a 3D camera above our moonroof and took a 360 degree video of the commute. Enjoy!

Already we have scheduled four book events in 2019, from West Seattle to Burien to the Rainier Valley. The dates will be here before we know it — Jan. 24, Jan. 31, March 14 and March 23. Stay tuned on the events page of our website!

Books on display December 14, 2018, in Ballard. Photo by Gavin MacDougall

You can re-live an event or experience it anew! Videos of 19 of the book’s 23 events from November and December 2018 are posted on the events page of our website.

Seattle Now and Then: The Historic Hundred is a true treasure, an instant classic. This gorgeous volume expertly captures the singularity of Seattle past and present. Page after page after page thrill the senses with interesting and evocative images, accompanied by Paul Dorpat’s inimitable text. This book is an absolute must-have for anyone interested in Seattle, past and present. The dream team of Paul Dorpat, Jean Sherrard and Clay Eals has given us a beautiful and indispensable gift.

Dave Eskenazi,
Seattle baseball historian

———

Sheila Farr

Paul is the guru of Seattle history. He brings a formidable intellect to his research and an artist’s sensibility to its presentation. This is history told with charm and lightness — and, thanks to steadfast help from Jean — spiced with amazing photos, past and present.

Want to order a book online? It’s easy. Just visit our “How to order” page. You can even specify how you want Paul and Jean to personalize your copy. Books will reach your mailbox about a week after you order them.

As Jean looks on, Paul signs a book for Nancy Guppy of The Seattle Channel’s “Art Zone.”

THEN: Pioneer Photographer Theodore Peiser’s look south-south-east from the Occidental Hotel probably in 1884 to the tidelands south of King Street and the still forested Beacon Hill horizon. (Courtesy, Seattle Public Library)NOW: For his repeat, Jean Sherrard used his dependable extension pole to lift his Nikon about 21 feet above the Sinking Ship Garage’s (a popular name) top and exposed parking lot. The ever-stuck ship was built in 1961-2 after the destruction of the landmark Seattle Hotel.

When Ron Edge, one of Seattle’s busy and insatiable heritage explorers, first shared this panorama with me I was both excited and thankful. I have remained so. Ron found it among about a dozen other pioneer Theodore Peiser photos from the 1880s that were recently added to the Seattle Public Library’s growing collection of free on-line photographs. This is a nearly panoramic glimpse into the Seattle neighborhood that was then a mix of our Chinatown and Skid Road.

Ron corrected my first hunch that this was photographed from the southwest corner of Occidental Avenue (when it was still named Second Avenue) and Mill Street in the mid-1880s – probably late 1884. However, while my date was at least close to being correct, my place was too low. Rather, this Peiser contribution was recorded from the top floor, or perhaps roof, of the showpiece Occidental Hotel, which by the time it was enlarged to fill the flatiron block between Second Avenue, James Street and Yesler Way in 1887-8, was only months short of being reduced to rubble during the city’s Great Fire of June 6, 1889. All else showing here (this side of the bay) was also destroyed. For more temporal confidence another clue rides on Seattle’s street railway, which started running its horse-drawn cars on Occidental Avenue north from Washington Street in 1888. We can see neither the rails here nor their horse power.

As might be expected, there is an abundance of surviving stories that were “written” to the sides of these streets, including the 1885 expulsion of the Chinese living here. They were pushed out of town by that day’s anti-immigrant populists (we might call them). The intersection of Second Avenue (Occidental) and Washington Street, seen here on the right, was the well-sauced center of Seattle’s Skid Road. In the 1884-85 city directory I counted nine saloons busy above the tidelands between Yesler Way (Mill Street) and Commercial Street (First Ave. S.). A few names include the Arion Beer hall, the Elite, the Flynn, the Idaho, the Sazare, and the United States – all of them wetting their appetites beside Washington Street. (Please note, Murray Morgan’s engaging classic, Skid Road, An Informal Portrait of Seattle, is again in print, and now with an introduction by The Seattle Times’ own and also historic book critic, Mary Ann Guinn.)

We will begin another short story with a question. Does the two-story structure, right-of-center, at the southeast corner of Occidental and Washington (and also the next structure standing beyond it to the south), seem to be leaning to the right (west)? We think so. This was the soggiest part of the pioneer peninsula named Piner’s Point after Thomas Piner, a quartermaster on the U.S. Navy’s exploring and surveying Wilke’s expedition of 1841. Mrs. Frances Guye’s a-kilter (if we are straight) boarding house was photographed in 1872 when it sat about two feet higher than it does here ca. 1884.

Paul Dorpat inscribes a book for Marcie Sillman, longtime KUOW-FM host, after their interview on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2018. See links below!

The events are over for 2018, but you can still purchase the new book by Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard, Seattle Now & Then: The Historic Hundred. To order online, see below. Remember, you can specify a personal inscription by Paul and Jean — for a gift or for you!

Books on display December 14, 2018, in Ballard. Photo by Gavin MacDougall

The latest media appearance for the book came at 12:45 PM yesterday, when an interview aired of Paul and Jean by Marcie Sillman of “The Record” on KUOW-FM. See links to the 15-minute edited version and to video of the full, half-hour interview here:

Here are samples from the interview, addressed to Seattle’s recent newcomers:

Referencing Paul’s more than 1,800 photo-history columns, Marcie asked Paul, “Do you contemplate the impact that this work has done on what direction the city might take?” Paul’s reply: “It occurs to me quite a bit. I think, ‘My gosh, this thing has been here consistently for nearly 40 years, and it has a lot of readers, and I know it’s had a lot of effect.’ So yes, I’m kind of proud of that.”

Marcie followed up: “So what would you say to the new employee who works in South Lake Union at that big behemoth of a company who’s just arrived in town, what should they know?” Paul replied, “That’s easy. I’d say buy the book. Buy several copies, not only for yourself but for your relatives in Peoria, Illinois.”

Jean added, “Buy the book, then walk around the city, because I think that there’s an awful lot of people who arrive, find a little space that they can call their own, and stop. But this is a city’s that’s walkable. You can stroll around many of these important historic places, and there’s a resonance that comes through. There’s enough that we can explore and discover. So … start walking.”

To see links to all the print and broadcast media coverage of the book so far, click here.

Paul Dorpat is a Seattle treasure, and now he has fashioned a graphical and textual delight that will grab you and not let go. It guides deeply into the city’s untidy past and emerges into its lustrous present. But beware! Once you pick up this book, don’t even pretend you will sleep until you turn the last page – and even then, you will be tempted to start over again.

Scott Cline,
former Seattle city archivist

———

Tom Douglas

As someone who likes to put new restaurants into old buildings, I appreciate the way every urban ziggurat has a unique story to tell. Naturally, this means I’m also a longtime fan of Paul Dorpat’s photo-history column in the Seattle Times magazine. Seattle is morphing with dizzying speed into a future self, our streets blocked by cranes and our sidewalks teeming with tech workers. What we all need is to take a breath and pick up a copy of this remarkable book. Pour a drink, settle into your favorite chair, and let Seattle Now & Then: The Historic Hundred build you a bridge, photo by photo, to the shared past of who we are and where we come from.

Want to order a book online? It’s easy. Just visit our “How to order” page. You can even specify how you want Paul and Jean to personalize your copy. Books will reach your mailbox about a week after you order them.

As Jean looks on, Paul signs a book for Nancy Guppy of The Seattle Channel’s “Art Zone.”

THEN: When University Street was first cut through the original University of Washington Campus in 1907-8 it was graded wider between Fourth and Fifth Avenues with the intention of giving that block greater potential as a public place. This it received especially well during World War Two when the street’s plaza temporarily became Victory Square. (Courtesy, the Museum of History and Industry.)NOW: The elegant brick and tile faces of the several Metropolitan landmarks that once covered the four corners of Fourth Avenue and University Street have been modernized by half in the half-century plus since the Webster and Stevens Studio “then” was recorded in 1959. Jean Sherrard, this feature’s “repeater,” is especially pleased with how the construction crane on the right in his “then” may remind one of the surviving skyscraper that resembles a golf-T but is here out-of-frame.

PERHAPS the same exhibit Thor but not the same place. Does anyone recognize the location of this Alamy Stock photo – from the Fifties?Another mysterious Thor visit. Surely some encyclopedia reader will know this ?capitol? building.

On September 24, 1959, City Hall’s busy Board of Public Works easily approved a temporary display of Thor, the Air Force’s Intermediate Range Ballistic missile named for a Nordic deity with a not always righteous reputation and a rather ignitable temper. The faithful to scale public relations copy of the Air Force’s Intermediate Range Ballistic missile was lifted above University Plaza, still one of the central business district’s rare public places.

About two stories of stairs led a line of curious visitors up one side of the shiny Thor to an open door and on to a platform that eight feet later reached another open door leading to the stairway designated “down.” It was a command that some of the visitors were no doubt pleased to obey, And yet while walking that plank the explorers were, of course, safe, and kept free of the BM’s liquid fuel (aka gas), stabilizing gyros, and “pay package” of merely one nuclear bomb.

A Seattle Times clip from August 31, 1957.

By the fall of 1959 Thor had been running through nearly three years of flight tests that included several crashes. Meanwhile both the Navy and Army were working with their own Cold War responses to Russia’s surprising success two years earlier with the three weeks of world circling by Sputnik, a shining metal sphere with antennas. I recall the “Sputnik Surprise” of October 1957 very well and I suspect that many readers will also remember that the satellite that began the space age was about the diameter of the two basketballs that were famously dribbled side-by-side by one member of the Globe Trotters.

Boeing’s briefd embrace of an Atomic Plane. Seattle Times clip from March 13, 1952

More than for its citizens, the Seattle appearance of Thor was engineered for the about one thousand delegates to the 14th Annual Convention of the National Defense Transportation Association, a happy group of munitions dealers and military brass that represented well what former President – and general – Dwight D. Eisenhower named “the military industrial complex.” Unfortunately the primary show-time for Thor before the three-day convention was foiled by a forgetful air force sergeant who had the keys to the missile’s two doors, but was off-duty. Besides the disappointed military brass, among those invited to walk the eight foot plank thru the full width of the Missile that special day was Donald Douglas, of Douglas Aircraft, the builder of the Thor.

A Times clip on Victory Square “reopening”, April 16,1944.A late mention of Victory Square pulled from a post-war Times published on April 16, 1944.

WEB EXTRAS

Anything to add, compatriots! Welcome home to Green Lake Jean following your applauded performance on the morning KING TV show.

The event is free, and you have the opportunity to purchase the book and have it personally inscribed by Paul and Jean. It’s a sure way to obtain the book in time for gift-giving, as the time has passed when a book ordered by mail will arrive before December 25.

Books on display December 14, 2018, in Ballard. Photo by Gavin MacDougall

Did you miss one of our book events this fall and would like to see it from the convenience of your computer? Or perhaps you attended an event and would like to re-live it? Or share it with a friend?

We have posted videos of 18 of the book’s 22 events on the events page of our website. The videos include this one from December 16, 2018, at the Bothell Library, co-sponsored by the Bothell Historical Museum:

Historian Paul Dorpat has been a Seattle treasure for decades, and his latest book, Seattle Now & Then: The Historic Hundred, presents highlights from his rich and revealing career, peeling back the layers of Seattle’s myriad existences. In his warm and engaging style, Dorpat offers rare glimpses into the city’s soul and tells its ever-intriguing story with new and often unexpected detail. A crowning achievement and a must-have for all who live in and love the Queen City of Puget Sound.

Kurt Armbruster,author, Before Seattle Rocked

———

David Brewster

They say there are two kinds of cities: anywhere cities and somewhere cities. This splendid book poses the question, paired historic photo after ingeniously paired modern photo, of whether Seattle has traded in somewhere-ness – a rooted, distinctive, peculiar place – for anywhere-ness. It coyly avoids an answer, but there is plenty of material for enriching the debate, and maybe some suggestions for reversing a tidal wave of blandness. More than that, Dorpat sneaks in a huge amount of Seattle history, sweetened with wit and his eye for the offbeat. No Seattle history book ever went down more easily. But watch out: It also sticks to your ribs!

David Brewster, founder of Seattle Weekly,
Town Hall, Crosscut and Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum

Want to order a book online? It’s easy. Just visit our “How to order” page. You can even specify how you want Paul and Jean to personalize your copy. Books will reach your mailbox about a week after you order them.

Want a book in time for Christmas? Come to tomorrow’s event at University Book Store! (See above.)

As Jean looks on, Paul signs a book for Nancy Guppy of The Seattle Channel’s “Art Zone.”

Over the years, I’ve had a number of queries asking, Who were you, Jean, before Paul came a-knockin’?

Well, for the better part of a decade, ending in 1992, I was the artistic director of a radio theatre called Globe Radio Repertory. My longtime friend and collaborator, John Siscoe, served as literary director; together, we wrote more than 60 scripts for adaptations of classics of Western literature like Don Quixote, Dead Souls, Madame Bovary, selected stories of Anton Chekhov, and Kafka’s The Castle. I had the privilege of directing a number of Seattle’s great actors, amongst them Glen Mazen, John Aylward, John Gilbert, Ted D’Arms, Frank Corrado, Marjorie Nelson, Marianne Owen, and many others.

Our dramas were supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, plus a handful of other local and national corporations and foundations. We aired nationally on NPR Playhouse on more than 150 stations around the country, and internationally in Canada, the UK, and Australia.

For your listening pleasure, here’s the first episode of our 13-part adaptation of Don Quixote, starring Ted D’Arms as Quixote, John Aylward as Sancho Panza, Marjorie Nelson as the housekeeper, John Gilbert as Father Pero Perez, and Glen Mazen narrating.